Nicolas Sanhes and SYSTRA: the association between art and engineering

This is a first for SYSTRA: an exchange of expertise between a sculptor who wants to push the boundaries of his work and an engineering company in search of new inspirations. Six collaborative workshops gathered for 6 months a team of engineers, architects, designers of SYSTRA and the artist to make a real experience of this exchange.

Nicolas Sanhes has developed a unique style over the years: he develops floating sculptures with construction material based on the idea of a Line. A master of his art, the sculptor transforms heavy metal beams into elegant abstractions. With experience and intuition, he manages to balance his structures but when he wants to increase the scale of his creations, construction becomes an issue.

SYSTRA’s expertise dedicated to the Art

SYSTRA is recognized worldwide for the expertise of its engineers on the monumental infrastructure. The Tianxingzhou bridge in Wuhan, the Obhur Creek Bridge of Jeddah, future bridges of Subiyah in Kuwait or of Chacao in Chile : so many remarkable achievements that required elaborate calculation techniques. Nevertheless, aesthetic can be overshadowed by strong technical constraints.

The artist and SYSTRA decided to work together to push their limits, technical issues for Nicolas Sanhes, stylistic topics for SYSTRA.

"I saw in Nicolas Sanhes’ sculptures a mirror of SYSTRA’s work on bridges. That’s why I wanted to initiate their meeting. Artists and engineers are looking to master the visual impact of their works", explains Bruno Schmitt, EVP Finance and Administration, and member of the Board.